Saturday, May 31, 2014

May 31, 2014 - INDONESIA - Flights across northern Australia could be affected for days as a vast ash cloud spews from an Indonesian volcano, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss says. Sangeang Api, a volcano off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, has erupted at least three times since Friday afternoon.Flights to and from Darwin International Airport have been cancelled on Saturday as the ash cloud spreads across the Top End and towards Alice Springs.

This is the incredible moment when a huge volcano erupted in Indonesia sending ash spewing an estimated 12 miles into the sky.The powerful explosion took place at Mount Sangeang Api in the Lesser Sunda Islands - an area that plays host to 129 active volcanoes - and sent a distinctive spaceship-shaped ring of pyroclastic smoke high into the air.

The photographs were taken by professional photographer Sofyan Efendi during a commercial flight from Bali to the fishing town of Labuan Bajo in West Nusa Tenggara province.

Scores of farmers who work but do not live on the island were ordered to leave and not return until the volcano has finished erupting, said Muhammad Hendrasto, head of Indonesia's National Volcanology Agency. There are not believed to have been any deaths or injuries as a result of the eruption.

Authorities have had Mount Sangiang Api - which means 'Mountain of Spirits' in Balinese - on high alert for almost a year, he told China's Xinhua news agency. The volcano sits in Indonesia's notorious 'Ring of Fire' - an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. It has 452 volcanoes - 75 per cent of the world's total.Since Sangiang Api's first recorded eruption in 1512, it is believed to have erupted a total of 20 times.

Eerie: After erupting, the volcano sent a
distinctive spaceship-shaped ring of pyroclastic smoke high into the
air. Pilots in the area reported seeing the cloud rising to 65'000 feet,
spreading over a 25 mile area

Cloud: The volcano sits in Indonesia's notorious 'Ring of Fire'

The 'Ring of Fire' - an area where a large number of
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in thebasin of the Pacific
Ocean. It has 452 volcanoes - 75 per cent of the world's total

Mr Truss says the ash cloud sits between 6km and 13km in the atmosphere and is sweeping southwest over northern Australia."Depending on wind and other weather conditions, the ash has the potential to affect flights to and from other airports, including Brisbane, during coming days. This is currently being fully assessed," he said.

Air services Australia, the nation's air navigation authority, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Bureau of Meteorology are all investigating the cloud, Mr Truss said."Depending on wind and other weather conditions, the ash has the potential to affect flights to and from other airports, including Brisbane, during coming days. This is currently being fully assessed," he said.

"Passengers are advised to check with their airlines for further information."

Airservices Australia has begun diverting international flights around the ash cloud.

WATCH: 12-mile high ash cloud looms over Indonesia as volcano erupts.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority says volcanic ash can affect all aircraft with piston or jet engines at all flight levels.

AEROMEDICAL service CareFlight has scaled its flights from Darwin airport until the volcano dust settles.CareFlight Director Ian Badham said it's being monitored on a minute by minute basis."To mitigate risk, we're responding to really urgent cases," Mr Badham said. "All but urgent emergency flights have been temporarily suspended. We're monitoring it like all other aviation operators. We're looking to life restrictions as soon as it's safe to do so." Careflight has six planes and a helicopter based at its Darwn hanger.

Duty Superintendent Geoff Barnhert said the police plane was still flying because the ash affected only high-level aviation.

The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre said most of the Territory is covered by an ash cloud, but it is unlikely to reach Australia's east coast. Flights in and out of Darwin have been cancelled after volcanic ash from Mount Sangeang Api moved across to Australia.

The volcano, which erupted on Friday, is 1373km northwest of Darwin on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. It is roughly halfway between Bali and Timor.

DVAAC manager Emile Jansons told the NT News it was a "fairly sizeable eruption" but that the cloud over the Territory would be invisible to the naked eye.

"The volcano has been erupting to 15km in the air," he said. "It has moved across the Kimberley and western Top End. It's high in the atmosphere so there won't be any ashfall different to normal bushfire ashfall."

He said there should be negligible impact on the air quality compared to usual Top End dry season weather, and said adverse health effects were unlikely.

There is no official announcement yet, but word on the ground at Darwin Airport is most flights will be cancelled until Monday.

Asked to look into his crystal ball to get an end date, Mr Jansons said: "It continues to erupt - it's still going up right now - but how long it'll go I don't know. They tend to stop after a day or two so it's unlikely to reach the east coast. It's almost reached Tennant Creek in the south. It won't get to Brisbane or Sydney."

He said his office monitors cloud images and distributes information to aviators to make decisions. The ash can harm aircraft engines and structures, depending on the concentration of ash in the air. "It's a hazard in the atmosphere," he said. It's a situation for airlines to balance the safety costs or the damage costs."

Darwin International Airport's website shows all incoming and outgoing flights have been cancelled.

The country's capital Mexico City is 877 km from the earthquake's epicenter.

An excavator-mounted hydraulic jackhammer is being used to break up the
concrete of the collapsed bridge Cuajilote
after an earthquake struck
the area in Tecpan de Galeana May 9, 2014. (Reuters / Claudio Vargas)

Located
atop three of the large tectonic plates, Mexico is one of the world's
most seismologically active regions. The relative motion of these
crustal plates causes frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanic
eruptions. Most of the Mexican landmass is on the westward moving North
American plate. The Pacific Ocean floor south of Mexico is being carried
northeastward by the underlying Cocos plate. Because oceanic crust is
relatively dense, when the Pacific Ocean floor encounters the lighter
continental crust of the Mexican landmass, the ocean floor is subducted
beneath the North American plate creating the deep Middle American
trench along Mexico's southern coast. Also as a result of this
convergence, the westward moving Mexico landmass is slowed and crumpled
creating the mountain ranges of southern Mexico and earthquakes near
Mexico's southern coast. As the oceanic crust is pulled downward, it
melts; the molten material is then forced upward through weaknesses in
the overlying continental crust. This process has created a region of
volcanoes across south-central Mexico known as the Cordillera
Neovolcánica.

USGS plate tectonics for the region.

The area west of the Gulf of California,
including Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, is moving northwestward
with the Pacific plate at about 50 mm per year. Here, the Pacific and
North American plates grind past each other creating strike-slip
faulting, the southern extension of California's San Andreas fault. In
the past, this relative plate motion pulled Baja California away from
the coast forming the Gulf of California and is the cause of earthquakes
in the Gulf of California region today.

Mexico has a
long history of destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In
September 1985, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake killed more than 9,500 people
in Mexico City. In southern Mexico, Volcán de Colima and El Chichón
erupted in 2005 and 1982, respectively. Paricutín volcano, west of
Mexico City, began venting smoke in a cornfield in 1943; a decade later
this new volcano had grown to a height of 424 meters. Popocatépetl and
Ixtaccíhuatl volcanos ("smoking mountain" and "white lady",
respectively), southeast of Mexico City, occasionally vent gas that can
be clearly seen from the City, a reminder that volcanic activity is
ongoing. In 1994 and 2000 Popocatépetl renewed its activity forcing the
evacuation of nearby towns, causing seismologists and government
officials to be concerned about the effect a large-scale eruption might
have on the heavily populated region. Popocatépetl volcano last erupted
in 2010. - USGS.

He says there were reported sightings of a loud, white flash at ground
level at around 6:30pm on the worldwide meteorites news website.

"It would have been a meteorite coming in somewhere from Mars and
Jupiter, they usually come from that sort of orbit, and just coming
through our atmosphere really, really fast and burning up as it came
through the atmosphere and hopefully landing on the ground."

Dr Tomkins encourages people to check their CTTV cameras from Sunday evening in hope of locating the meteorite.

"We can use that to figure out the direction that the meteorite came
from and where it's likely to have ended up on the ground, particularly
if there is some sort of time stamp on the video that really helps us
nail it down as well."

"We use video from multiple directions from where people have seen it
from multiple angles to triangulate down toward the ground position."

He says people who heard a loud bang on Sunday evening would have been within close proximity to its landing.

"Usually it gets brighter the closer you are to it, then a bang, the
boom people heard is when you're really close to it, people can usually
see a smoke trail if they're fairly close."

Dr Tomkins says the meteorite would have been the size of a car before exploding into the lower atmosphere.

"Usually if they're a stony meteorite, they usually explode in the lower
atmosphere and shower the ground with lots of little meteorites."

Freshly fallen meteorites are usually magnetic and have a black, shiny
outer surface, however once on the ground a light interior can be seen.

"People are only awake for brief periods during the evening, they don't' see all of them, a lot of them land in the ocean."

"We're talking about thousands of tonnes of meteoric material that actually comes to the earth from space every year."

Dr Tomkins says if a meteorite is recovered, it can help scientists understand the solar system.

"It tells us the age of the solar system, which is 4567 million years
old, the chemical composition of the solar system and the earth
ultimately, what the earth's core is made of, where the earth's water
came from, tells us all about how life might have come to earth."

Dr Tomkins recommends anyone with footage to send it to his friend,
David Finlay, an astronomy enthusiast who alerted the university about
this particular sighting.

Friday, May 30, 2014

May 30, 2014 - ETHIOPIA - It's a volcano, but not as we know it. This cerulean
eruption takes place in the Danakil Depression, a low-lying plain in
Ethiopia. The volcano's lava is the usual orange-red – the blue comes
from flames produced when escaping sulphuric gases burn.

(Image: Olivier Grunewald)

French photographer Olivier Grunewald creates such images without using colour filters or digital enhancement, which is no simple task. To get this shot he had to wait until dusk, when the electric blue flames were visible, but before all the daylight had ebbed away. Then the wind had to be blowing away from him so he could get close enough.

Photographing the similarly sulphurous Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia, where he worked inside the crater, was even more treacherous. "We have to take care when the winds push the flames close to us," he says. "In Danakil it is easier to escape as the land is flat."

Grunewald works in a gas mask to avoid breathing in the deadly fumes – but photographing Kawah Ijen still left him with peeling skin and clothes smelling of rotten eggs for weeks afterwards.

Another drawback of Grunewald's subject matter is that the acidic gases don't agree with his cameras. But it's worth it, he says. "The phenomenon is so uncommon – we really feel like we are on another planet." - NewScientist.

May 30, 2014 - MEXICO - Torrential rains from tropical storm Amanda claimed the lives of three people in Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

Waters rushing down mountainsides caused flash floods that swept away two people in the town of Zitacuaro in the western state of Michoacan, said the state's director of civil protection, Nicolas Alfaro.

The fatalities were a 50-year-old man and a girl of eight.

Roads and cars were damaged, and authorities warned homes might need to be evacuated if the rains continued.

Amanda, located far off Mexico's Pacific coast, reached hurricane strength over the weekend before being downgraded.

In the neighboring state of Guerrero, one person died in a road accident blamed on the storm. A tree fell on a road and the man drove right into it, dying instantly.

Amanda was the first named storm of the season.

On Saturday, Amanda became the first hurricane-strength tropical storm of 2014, crossed the 120 km/h wind speed threshold as it made its way through the Pacific.

But by Sunday morning, the storm had strengthened to category 4 status, with winds up to 250 km/h, just shy of the 252 km/h threshold that would make it a category 5.

The National Hurricane Centre says this is the strongest hurricane ever recorded during the month of May.

Pacific hurricane season is considered to run from May 15 to November 30. Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a near normal to above normal hurricane season in the eastern Pacific. Forecasters say up to 20 named storms could form, including up to 11 hurricanes. Three to six of those are expected to be category 3 or higher.

The Atlantic hurricane season, in contrast, is expected to be quieter. NOAA's 2014 Atlantic hurricane outlook predicts is a near-normal to below normal season.

May 30, 2014 - TORONTO, CANADA - Was it a blown hydro transformer, a meteor flying through the atmosphere? It couldn't have been a UFO, could it?

Whatever it was, few people seem to know, at least not yet.

Numerous reports from local residents seeing a flashing light and hearing a loud sonic boom began running rampant on Orangeville-centric social media sites on Wednesday night (May 28).

Residents in a radius as wide as Howard Crescent near the Headwaters
Health Care Centre to College Avenue near Credit Meadows Elementary
School reported hearing the unidentified noise at about 9:30 p.m.

"Although I did not see a "flash," I did hear the
very loud sound," Brett D Hancock posted on Facebook from Murray Court.
"And it was extremely loud."

"By the hospital," echoed Jada Doucette. "My big bully went ballistic. Even made my daughter and myself jump. It was so loud."

Before jumping to rash conclusions about aliens, UFOs, meteors or any
other phenomena, The Banner sought to eliminate some of the more
plausible scenarios first.

According to Rob Koekkoek, engineer with Orangeville Hydro, the local
utility has no evidence that one of its transformers blew last night.
There is no evidence of any field issues either..

"There have been no related calls from our customers," Koekkoek said in
an email. "It appears the noise is not related to our equipment."

"It didn't make me jump or anything," he said. "It was just a bang of some type. Don't know what it was."

Orangeville police Const. Scott Davis confirmed officers were called to investigate a report of a loud noise and flash of "white light"
near Howard Crescent at 9:41 p.m. Responding officers, however, were
unable to determine the cause or find any explanation for the apparent
phenomena.

"We checked the area. We couldn't come up with a source for the noise or
the white light, and that was it," Davis said. "That is the only report
that we had."

That seems to strengthen the possibility of meteor flying through the
atmosphere. As Orangeville Coun. Jeremy Williams pointed out on
Facebook, the area is at the tail end of a unique astrological event
involving thousands of meteors.

"It is possible, although nothing has been confirmed," Williams suggested. "Again, this is speculation at this point."
Jeff Renaud, senior media relations officer at the University of Western Ontario, told The Banner a loud
boom and flashes of light are consistent with what scientists would
investigate as a possible meteor flying through the atmosphere, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

"I'm not a scientist," Renaud pointed out. "But it sounds like something they would investigate."

If a meteor were to fall to the ground, Williams suggested the impact
would register on seismic detectors. As he noted further, the United
States Geological Survey isn't reporting any significant seismic
activity in this region.

So, what actually caused the loud boom, and a flash of light? It's anybody's guess at this point.
- Orangeville Banner.

May 29, 2014 - RUSSIA - Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed the historic Eurasian Economic
Union which will come into effect in January 2015. Cutting down trade
barriers and comprising over 170 million people it will be the largest
common market in the ex-Soviet sphere.

The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the EEU into existence in Astana. Reuters.

"The just-signed treaty is of epoch-making, historic importance," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

The troika of countries will cooperate in energy, industry, agriculture, and transport.

"In fact, we are shaping the largest common market in the CIS, with huge production, scientific and technological potential and enormous natural resources," the President added.

Citizens of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan will have the right to work freely throughout the member states without having to be issued any special work permits, Putin said.

Over the last three years, trade within the Customs Union has increased by $23 billion, or nearly 50 percent. At the end of 2013, it stood at $66.2 billion.

Belarus and Kazakhstan are in third place in foreign trade with the Russian Federation, after the EU and China, Putin said.

The Russian leader said that the document brings Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus to a new level of integration yes lets each individual state fully retain its sovereignty.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev
and Belarusian President Aleksandr
Lukashenko (from right to left) at
the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Astana,
Kazakhstan. (RIA Novosti / Michail Klimentyev)

“We ensure a close and coherent economic collaboration and cooperation. Today we have created a powerful and attractive center of economic development, a large regional market that brings together more than 170 people. Our union has huge reserves of natural resources, including energy, which accounts for one fifth of the world’s gas reserves and 15 percent of oil reserves,” Putin said.

"A new geopolitical reality of the 21st century is born,” Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said shortly after the final treaty was signed by the three leaders.

“We see this as an open space and a new bridge between the growing economies of Europe and Asia,” Nazarbayev added.

David Gray, head of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Russia, said he hoped improving trade will help boost investment, as in the EU.

“If you look at the EU, for example, the reduction of trade barriers within the EU had a significant impact in terms of doing business, which does encourage investment. And I’m looking forward to similar results in terms of the Eurasia deal,” Gray said while speaking to RT at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum on May 24.

However, Kazakh President Nazarbayev warned members to try and avoid repeating the mistakes of the European Union, which is still facing grave economic consequences from the continent-wide recession.

WATCH: 'Eurasian Economic Union a huge wake-up call for US and its power'.

“The point is that none of the participating countries were subject to de-industrialization, and traditional industries did not suffer. Lessons from the European recession are in this,” Nazarbayev said.

Belarusian President Lukashenko hailed the signing, but said there was still major work to be done in areas of bilateral trade.

“We believe the Economic Union will be the foundation for the future of political, military, and humanitarian unity,” he said.

The Customs Union is a project to gather ex-Soviet states into a free trade zone to rival the European Union. The three member states of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan only comprise 2.5 percent to the Earth’s population, but account for 15 percent of the total land.

"The geographical position permits us to create transport, logistic routes of not only regional, but also global importance that permits attracting massive trade flows in Europe and Asia," Putin said ahead of the signing ceremony in Astana, Kazakhstan on Thursday.

All member states will retain full state sovereignty. Russia is financing the lion’s share of the administration, but each state will have a one-third voting status.

(L-R) Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Nursultan Nazarbayev
of Kazakhstan and President Alexander
Lukashenko of Belarus during a
joint photo opportunity before a regular meeting of the
Supreme Eurasian
Economic Council in Astana. (RIA Novosti / Michael Klimentyev)

“The Eurasian Economic Union will operate on universal transparent principles understood by all, including standards and principles of the WTO,” Putin said.

The idea of creating a regional trading bloc was first suggested by President Nursultan Nazabayev of Kazakhstan back in 1994, when he gave a speech at Moscow State University. The Customs Union began on January 1, 2010, and started operating under a comprehensive customs code in July 2011.

Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) like Armenia, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan may be brought into the free trade zone later.

Kyrgyzstan plans to join the Customs Union by the end of 2014, President Almazbek Atambayev said at the meeting.

A decision on Armenia's membership will have to be made by July 2014, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazabayev said.

Commenting on the fact Ukraine once wanted to join, Lukashenko said sooner or later, the country’s leadership will realize “where their happiness lies”, and what is “right for the Ukrainian people.”

“We lost some [potential member states] along the way. Ukraine started this hard work with us, but it was very difficult for Ukraine,” the Belarusian president said.

Neighboring oil-rich Azerbaijan hasn’t made a decisive move towards either the Customs Union or European Union integration. - RT.

May 29, 2014 - GLOBAL VOLCANISM - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing reports of volcanoes across the globe, courtesy of Volcano Discovery.

Ubinas (Peru):
Activity continues to show an overall decreasing trend. A small
explosion occurred this morning at the volcano, producing a dark ash
plume that rose several hundred meters.

Ash explosion at Ubinas volcano this morning

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The volcano produced a steam and ash plume during today that rose to estimated 20,000 ft (6 km) altitude and drifted east.

Shiveluch volcano today (KVERT webcam)

Dukono (Halmahera):
Activity continues to be elevated at the volcano. An ash plume at
estimated 10,000 ft (3 km) altitude extended 35 nautical miles to the
west this morning.

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico):
The number of steam-gas and sometimes ash emissions has increased a bit
to approx 8 per hour. No other significant changes occurred at the
volcano.

Current seismic signal at Reventador (CONE station, IGPEN)

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): The new lava flow on the eastern flank of the Caliente dome continues
to advance slowly and produce avalanches. Small explosions occurred,
generating ash plumes up to 700 m high. Rainfalls caused a medium-sized
lahar in the Nima I river yesterday at dawn.

Fuego (Guatemala):
The lava flow has disappeared and explosive activity in turn increased.
The observatory reported ash plumes up to 600 m high and drifting SW to
8 km distance. Shock waves accompanied the stronger explosions.
Rainfalls triggered a lahar in the Las Lajas river canyon.

Reventador (Ecuador):
Weak to moderate effusive and explosive activity continues at the
volcano. Cloud cover prevents direct observations most of the time, but
the seismic signal shows tremor and explosion signals. A thermal hot
spot indicates that lava continues to build up at the summit lava dome.

May 29, 2014 - EARTH - The following stories constitutes some of the latest incidents of Earth changes across the globe.

Magnitude 5.8 Earthquake Shakes Dominican Republic And Puerto Rico

USGS earthquake shakemap intensity.

A 5.3-magnitude earthquake has
struck in the waters between the Dominican Republic and the U.S.
territory of Puerto Rico, shaking buildings in both places. There are no
immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The
quake Wednesday afternoon was about 30 miles (49 kilometers) south of
Punta Cana. The U.S. Geological Survey says it occurred at a depth of 91
kilometers (57 miles). - Yahoo.

South Dakota Storm Chaser Gets Hit By Lightning While Filming

Storm chaser Scott Sheppard was filimg a storm near Fairburn, South Dakota, when he was struck by lightning.SevereStudios via YouTube

Now here's some shocking footage.

A storm chaser in South Dakota wanted to catch video of a powerful
thunderstorm. Instead, he recorded himself being struck by lightning.

Scott Sheppard was filming video of an oncoming storm in Fairburn when the lightning storm started, the video summary explains.

He was in his car, holding his camera with an arm outstretched through the window, when the bolt struck him.

WATCH: Storm chaser hit by lightning.

The strike first hit his arm, forcing the video camera to turn upward
toward the sky. Then, the lightning bolt traveled downward, blowing a
hole in the street, the description says. Sheppard's car was disabled in
the strike and had to be towed.

But don't worry about Sheppard: His arm is a little sore, but he's doing just fine. - NY Daily News.

Massive Tornado Seen Over North Dakota

Amateur video posted online showed a tornado approaching a trailer camp
in Watford City, in the US state of North Dakota on Tuesday. Tornado
damaged or destroyed 15 trailers at the camp. Nine people were injured,
including a 15-year-old girl who suffered critical injuries.

A 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck 107km south of Raoul Island, New
Zealand, at 06:39 GMT on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said. The
quake struck at a depth of 35km. According to news reports, no damage was immediately reported.

Despite Hot Weather, Water Pipes Remain Frozen In Winnipeg

The high in Winnipeg Tuesday was 26 C, but some are still suffering from what can only be described as a winter hangover.

"It's been an experience. It's been quite an experience and we're just
waiting for this experience to end," said Aynsley O'Donovan, a Winnipeg
resident who's had frozen pipes for 11 weeks. "It's about time we get
our water back."

O'Donovan is among the nearly 500 property owners around the city in a
similar situation. Although lucky enough to be hooked up to her
neighbour's water, she still has no idea when she'll be using her own
water again.

The problem: the frost is still more than a metre deep in places
and now the city says all pipes won't be thawed until at least the end
of June.

O'Dononvan knows you can't control mother nature but a lack of communication from the city is something that can be fixed.

WATCH: Pipes still frozen despite summer-like temperatures.

"We've received almost zero communication from the city, from 311, from
water and waste [department], from water services, from my city
councillor, and I've yet to have a return call from Mayor Sam Katz in
regards to my inquiry."

The city has a different take.

"[The city hasn't] had one complaint. We're getting emails phone calls
thanking you," said Katz. "The department has been doing a great job."

The city did look into borrowing thawing machinery from Brandon and
Regina but both municipalities said the same thing: there's nothing to
lend.

So for now, O'Donovan, like hundreds of others, waits - caught in a winter limbo that seemingly has no end.

"It's exceedingly frustrating. I don't understand how I'm paying for a
city service that I'm not yet receiving," said O'Donavan. "I don't
understand how when we were first told it was going to be one to three
weeks, now all of sudden it's going on 11 weeks."
- Global News.

Second Sinkhole Opens Up In Newcastle, Australia

The first sinkhole, in Swansea Heads, near Lake Macquarie. New, smaller hole opens two doors away from 20m by 10m crater above old coalmine in NSW's Hunter region. NBN News

A second sinkhole has appeared in an upmarket neighbourhood south of
Newcastle, prompting fears more land could collapse into an old mine
shaft that appears to have caused the erosion.

The first sinkhole, measuring up to 20m wide and 10m deep, developed on Tuesday night next to a three-storey home on Lambton Parade in plush Swansea Heads, near Lake Macquarie.

A husband and wife returned to their seaside property about two hours
after the hole developed next to their front deck, swallowing tonnes of
dirt and debris.

A second, smaller sinkhole developed on Wednesday morning in the front
garden of a property two doors down. It measured about two metres
across.

The area beneath the street was once part of the Swansea pit, a coalmine
abandoned in the 1950s. The Mine Subsistence Board is now leading an
investigation into the sinkholes, including checks to ensure the
stability and structural integrity of surrounding homes.

"It appears what has happened is that an old mine
shaft, a furnace shaft, has caused the collapse," Inspector Sam
Crisafulli told the Newcastle Herald.

Sinkholes can occur because of land collapsing into mined areas. But
they can also occur naturally, when acidic rainwater seeps through
surface dirt and erodes bedrock. Large sinkholes can swallow whole
houses and their occupants.
- Guardian.

Ross Sea Ice In Antarctica Increase By 5% Since 1993

A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters reconstructs
sea-ice area in the Ross Sea, Antarctica from a 130 year coastal
ice-core record. The authors find the "data show prevailing stable SIA
from the 1880s until the 1950s, a 2 - 5% reduction from the mid-1950s to
the early-1990s, and a 5% increase after 1993."

Thus, the overall trend in the Ross Sea, Antarctica over the past 130 years would be stable to increasing.

﻿﻿Kate E. Sinclair et al

We present the first proxy record of sea-ice area (SIA) in the Ross Sea,
Antarctica, from a 130 year coastal ice-core record. High-resolution
deuterium excess data show prevailingstable SIA from the 1880s
until the 1950s, a 2 - 5% reduction from the mid-1950s to the
early-1990s, and a 5% increase after 1993.Additional support
for this reconstruction is derived from ice-core methanesulphonic acid
concentrations and whaling records. While SIA has continued to decline
around much of the West Antarctic coastline since the 1950s, concurrent
with increasing air and ocean temperatures, the underlying trend is
masked in the Ross Sea by a switch to positive SIA anomalies since the
early-1990s. This increase is associated with a strengthening of
southerly winds and the enhanced northward advection of sea ice.﻿

Movistar team cyclists lead the pack as they climb
through fog and snow during the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling
race from Ponte di Legno to Val Martello, Italy, May 27, 2014. Fabio Ferrari/AP Photo

A dramatic mountain finish in today's stage of the Giro d'Italia, coupled with brutal weather conditions in the Italian Alps, is prompting some cycling enthusiasts to dub this one of the most epic stages in recent cycling history.

Colombian cyclist Nairo Quintana's win through mist and snow-banked roads in Stage 16 of the 21-day tour propelled him into the overall lead.

Quintana, 24, known for his prodigious climbing skills, finished 8
seconds ahead of Canadian Ryder Hesjedal on the 86-mile route, which
included the legendary Gavia and Stelvio climbs.

"It was raining a lot," said Quintana, of team Movistar. "We all knew it was very dangerous."

"I went at my rhythm. I gave everything today. I was climbing well in the end," Quintana said.

Quintana took the overall lead from his fellow
Colombian Rigoberto Uran, who slipped to second overall in what is
called the general classification.

Today's stage, which was the first time that both the Gavia and the
Stelvio were climbed on the same day, was a crucial test for uphill
specialists such as Quintana. The 21st and final stage of the tour is
scheduled for June 1, ending in the northern Italian city of Trieste. - ABC News.

Sinkhole Develops In Parking Lot In Winter Haven, Florida

The sink hole is about 5 feet deep and 30 feet
wide, however police say the parking lot continues to buckle in areas
out from the hole.

A possible sinkhole has developed in a Publix supermarket parking lot
across from the entrance to Legoland and continues to spread.

The hole is approximately 30 feet wide and 5 feet deep, said Jamie Brown, spokeswoman with the Winter Haven Police Department.

Cracks and ripples in the pavement show it continues to spread farther
away from the hole and toward Cypress Gardens Boulevard, Brown said.

Police and fire personnel are at the Publix, 6031 Cypress Gardens Blvd.,
ensuring public safety if the hole continues to open, Brown said.

Geologists are on their way to the scene to determine if it is a sinkhole and how big it is.

The parking lot is private property for the shopping center that houses
Publix, K-Mart and several other outlets. Police have not evacuated
anyone from the area and stores continue to remain open. No injuries
have been reported.

Brian Swain, property manager, said he is worried
about how the hole will affect surrounding properties, but it's still
too early to tell.

"The good news is, sinkholes are repairable," he said. "In most cases." - ABC News.

May 29, 2014 - WEST AFRICA - A song now sweeping the dance floors of Liberia
and Guineahas been recorded by a group of West African rappers, warning of the
dangers of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola – which has killed 188 people in the
region in two months.

Health workers walk in an isolation center for people infected with Ebola at an hospital in GuineaPhoto: CELLOU BINANI/AFP

Revellers in Monrovia and Conakry, capitals respectively of Liberia and Guinea, have crafted a dance to match the music which involves no bodily contact between people – very rare in dance-mad West Africa.

Ebola in fact can only be transferred by coming into direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person. It is, however, virulent, killing as many as 90 per cent of those who catch the virus.

"Ebola, Ebola in town," repeats the song, recorded by a trio of artists D-12, Shadow and Kuzzy of 2 Kings, all believed to be Liberia-based.

In countries like Liberia and Guinea, where adult literacy is below 40 per cent, music, theatre and radio are regularly used to try to spread health messages as widely as possible, although the artists are not thought to have written the song for any aid agency or health charity.

According to the World Health Organisation and the country's presidency, 258 clinical cases of suspected or confirmed Ebola have been recorded in Guinea since the outbreak was first identified in March. Of those, 174 people have died.

Another nine people are believed to have died in Liberia and five in Sierra Leone.

A significant number of those who fell sick with the illness have recovered, but are facing stigma with friends and even family members refusing to be near them or touch them for fear of catching the virus.

There are concerns that the Ebola In Town song's warning "don't touch your friend" may worsen that stigma.

The virus is believed initially to have been passed to humans by people eating fruit bats, which are a delicacy in parts of West Africa. It is then extremely contagious.

Symptoms initially include fever, diarrhoea and muscle aches, which are similar to many other less fatal illnesses in the region and mean that patients do not initially seek treatment.

As the virus takes hold, victims may suffer serious difficulties breathing and swallowing and eventually significant internal and external bleeding.

May 29, 2014 - JAPAN - A Japanese oil tanker has exploded off the country's south-west coast
near Himeji port, leaving one of the eight people aboard missing, the
country's coast guard has said. Four others were severely injured in the
accident on Thursday.

Black smoke rising from a 998-tonne oil tanker off the coast of Hyogo prefecture.

Fire gutted the middle of the Shoko
Maru – the 998-tonne tanker, based in the western city of Hiroshima,
was left leaning over in the water after the accident and was being
doused by firefighting ships.

Seven people were rescued, four
having suffered severe burns, the public broadcaster NHK reported. A
search was under way for the missing man, the tanker's captain, it said.

The cause of the explosion was unclear, said coast guard spokesman
Koji Takarada. NHK said crew members had been working on the deck of the
tanker at the time of the blast.

The tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil and was stationary close
to the coast of Hyogo prefecture, about 280 miles (450km) west of Tokyo,
when the explosion happened.

Akihiro Komura, an official from
Syoho Shipping, a Hiroshima-based shipping firm that owns the vessel,
told the AFP news agency that seven of the eight Japanese crew were
accounted for but the fate of the captain was not yet known.

"The ship unloaded crude oil at a port in Hyogo prefecture and the
tanker was virtually empty when the accident occurred," he said.

"I heard that a crew member was using a grinder to remove paint and that seems to have triggered the blast, which we believe could have occurred when the remnants of the oil caught fire.

"It is a Japanese ship and belongs to our company. All the crew members are Japanese nationals. We have confirmed seven out of the eight are alive and one, believed to be the captain, is still missing."

News of the incident, which happened at around 9.30am, caused the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to interrupt debate in parliament. "In waters off Hyogo [prefecture] a tanker has exploded and is currently in flames," he said in the chamber.

Himeji port is one of a number that sit along the Inland Seto Sea coast, where there are numerous pockets of heavy industry. The city itself is a popular tourist destination known for one of Japan's finest feudal castles. - The Guardian.

May 29, 2014 - THE ARCTIC OCEAN - Dartmouth scientist Rachel Obbard was looking at samples of Arctic sea
ice for small organisms when something else caught her eye: Tiny,
bright-colored bits and pieces and miniature string-like objects that
did not seem to belong.

Map shows location where ice cores were taken from sea ice in Arctic Ocean, and were found to contain microplastics.CourtesRachel Obbard/R. Lieb-Lappen/Dartmouth College

Those small specks turned out to be a type of pollution known as
microplastics. Their presence in sea ice collected from the central
Arctic Ocean showed that some of the vast quantities of garbage and
pollution floating in the world's seas has traveled to the northernmost
waters.

For Obbard, an assistant engineering professor who specializes in polar-ice studies, the
appearance of microplastics in Arctic sea ice was an unpleasant
surprise. "I was kind of shocked. I said, 'This shouldn't be here in
such a remote place,'" she said.

Worse yet, that sea ice holding the small bits of trash is thinning and
likely to shed them back into the water, where they can be ingested by
fish, birds and mammals, said a study by Obbard and fellow scientists
that was published online Tuesday in the scientific journal Earth's
Future.

Extrapolating the findings from the examined cores
and factoring in the ongoing transformation of thick multiyear ice to
thinner, single-year ice, Obbard and her colleagues found that a
staggering amount of plastic and synthetic trash could be released in
coming years into Arctic waters. If other sea ice holds similar amounts
of debris and current ice-melt trends continue, 2,040 trillion cubic
meters of ice will melt in the next decade and more than 1 trillion
pieces of these microplastics will be released from the melted ice into
the water, the study authors calculated.

The study results from analysis of ice cores, ranging from a meter to
3.5 meters, that were retrieved from the Arctic Ocean during two
expeditions, one in 2005 that was funded by the Natonal Science
Foundation in 2005 and one in 2010 that was funded by NASA. Obbard was
examining the preserved ice to search for microorganisms known as
diatoms when she encountered the objects, which were generally blue,
green, red and black.

She melted the ice, filtered that water and sent the retrieved objects
to Richard Thompson, a marine biologist at Britain's University of
Plymouth, for analysis. Thompson is a co-author of the newly-published
study.

The items found in the ice were generally under 2 millimeters in
diameter and as small as .02 millimeters, according to the study.

As much as 30 to 40 per cent of the Arctic Ocean remains covered in iceCanadian Press

The majority of the pieces, 54 percent, were rayon, a manmade material
created out of cellulose and used to make clothing, cigarette butts,
disposable diapers and other personal-hygiene products, among other
consumer goods. The rest were pieces of various other types of polymers
-- polyester, nylon, polypropylene, polystyrene, acrylic and
polyethylene. Identifying the tiny pieces fell largely to Thompson,
whose research has focused on marine debris, Obbard said.

There are several likely sources of the rayon and plastic bits found in
the ice, Obbard said. One is the floating and relatively large pieces of
trash in the oceans, which crumble into finer bits, she said. Other
possible sources are the discharges of ingredients used to manufacture
various consumer products and waste from faraway laundries, she said.
"All that lint that comes off of clothing has to go somewhere," she
said. And some of the pieces may be polymer beads, or remnants of those
beads, that are contained in some cosmetic products.

Biologists worry about animals consuming pieces of ocean trash instead of the food they need.

A different study, co-authored by Thompson and published last year,
found that similar microplastics had been ingested by fish in the
English Channel. Of 504 fish examined, more than a third had the
synthetic bits in their bodies, and the ratio of those pieces -- with
57.8 percent rayon -- was similar to what was discovered in the Arctic
sea-ice cores.
More ominously, these microplastics can be "vectors" that carry persistent organic pollutants,
Obbard said. A 2012 study of microplastics found on San Diego beaches
found that the pieces carried some dangerous contaminants, including PCBs and the long-banned pesticide DDT.

Still unknown is where in the world the frozen-in-place bits of marine trash originated.

Obbard and her co-authors believe that at least some of the ice may have
formed on the Alaska coast and was transported by the Beaufort Gyre.
They hypothesize, based on patterns of currents and water flow, that the
microplastics are coming to the Arctic from the Pacific Ocean.

Obbard said she would like to do more research, evaluating ice in
several locations, to better understand how these tiny bits of plastic
and synthetic waste are winding up in Arctic ice.
- Alaska Dispatch.

The deaths focused mainly on Shiite sections of Baghdad and the tense northern city of Mosul, largely controlled by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

In Baghdad’s Sadr City, a minivan joined a line of taxis before the driver abandoned the vehicle minutes before it exploded, according to police. Four were killed and 14 were wounded, police and medical sources said.

Another 22 died in attacks around Baghdad, including 11 people in a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint near the religious neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, authorities and medical staff said, as reported by Reuters.

A car detonation killed 19 people – 12 military personnel and seven civilians – at a checkpoint entering Mosul, according to a security official.

Another car bomb exploded outside the headquarters of Iraq’s federal police in Mosul, killing two soldiers and one policeman, the official said.

A third attack in Mosul left two policemen dead, shot by unknown gunmen, security sources said.

In Tuz Khurmatu in northern Iraq, four family members were killed in a bombing in front of the homes of 11 Shiite Turkmen, according to security sources.

Iraq held national elections last month, and politicians are busy assembling the next government. Preliminary results of the election give Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki at least 94 parliament seats, making him the frontrunner to form the government. Negotiations are expected to be contentious amid a backdrop of ongoing, intense violence in the fractured country.

Relations between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq have increasingly soured, in part due to the conflict in neighboring Syria, which has attracted fighters from both sides of the sectarian divide to engage in the broader regional proxy war. This, coupled with internal tensions between the two dominant denominations of Islam, has led to the deadliest wave of violence to strike Iraq in six years.

Iraq has been torn by a new wave of violent attacks since April 2013, with the number of dead jumping to its highest level since the worst of the country's sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2008.

Over 8,800 people were killed in 2013 and 1,666 people died in the first three months of 2014 due to terrorist attacks or other acts of violence, according to UN statistics. Last month saw over 1,000 fatalities, 750 of which occurred as a result of terrorist attacks. - RT.

May 29, 2014 - EARTH -
The following constitutes the latest reports of unusual animal
behavior, mass die-offs, beaching and stranding of mammals, and the
appearance of rare creatures.

Masses Of Spider Crabs Wash Ashore, "Never Seen Anything Like This In 40 YEARS" In Tasmania, Australia

Scientists say spider crabs shed their shells before mating and can often wash up en masse.

Local residents have reported the orange crabs, around the size of a
human hand, have washed up on Raspins Beach at Orford in recent days.

Recreational Fishing Tasmania's Don Paton says he would like to get to the bottom of the event.

"Whether there's some viral infection that might have caught in the ocean or whether it's a natural phenomenon they actually do at certain times of the year," he said.

"It's amazing to me to think that over the last 30 or 40 years, or longer, that I've been around looking at the beaches up here most of my life, I've never seen a phenomenon like it."

Marine biologist Karen Gowlett-Holmes says it is likely the shells are washing up after the crabs have mated at sea.

"Spider crabs and most crabs can only mate when the female has just moulted her shell," she said.

"If you have a look at the shells that wash up, you generally find that it is just the shell, there's no actual meat inside it.

"The entire shell is moulted, down to the coating over the shell and the eyeballs; if you get hold of the bit that has the eyes, it's actually empty inside." - Yahoo.

Hundreds Of Cattle Found Dead From Cold Weather In Beni, Bolivia

The coldthat plaguesregions ofBeniand hasincreased in recentdays, has killedlivestockFEGABENIreported.

The manager of the Federation of Livestock of Beni and Pando (
FEGABENI ), Carmelo Arteaga, reported that over 600 cattle died of
intense cold that supports the region and the number could rise.

"We are concerned that we have been receiving messages via cell sur
that this has come as well as the previous one, has made cattle die ,
but this time the south has been cooler," he said.

Arteaga Moxos added in 250 animals died in a couple of properties are reported.

"
Likewise Cercado province , the report we have is that initially killed
300 animals in some properties , so if we do a quick sum of this
information so randomly , we can find that are more than 600 heads that
have died the south, "he said .

But he said that they have constant contact with the associations that
are part of the lost FEGABENI to update because of the low
temperatures.

Arteaga
noted that a recovery plan was agreed with the Government considering
the losses by March flooding, but now he said the situation is
complicated and therefore should rethink actions to address the
livestock sector. - Bolivia. [Translated]

Deputies Remove Snake From Car On I-44 In Springfield, Missouri

This black snake was found around a passenger’s feet in a car traveling down Interstate 44 Tuesday. Greene County Sheriff’s Office

A family driving down Interstate 44 on Tuesday had an unwelcome visitor in their car.

According to the Greene County Sheriff's Office, a woman was driving
down the interstate when a passenger noticed a 4-to-5-foot-long black
snake wrapped around his or her feet.

The driver pulled over, removed all the family members and called 911 for assistance.

Thousands Of Fish Are Turning Up Dead Along A Creek In Missouri, United States

Thousands of fish are showing up dead along Clear Creek from Monett
to Pierce City. Along the creek, there are fish of all sizes that are
dead and there's a thick odor in the air.

"Without knowing what's there 100%, it's hard to say if it's safe to be in the water," said Teresa Boman, Aquatic Ecologist.

Aquatic Ecologist Teresa Boman first noticed dead fish in Pierce City along Clear Creek this weekend.

"If
the fish are dying off, clearly that's a sign that something is
happening to the water that is potentially harmful to us as a citizen,"
she said.

Boman talked to farmers in Monett who also noticed fish dying upstream.

"Farmers have noticed 100% of their fish have died off in the creeks," she said.

Staff
from the Missouri Department of Conservation were working their way
along Clear Creek, counting the number of dead fish Tuesday.

"We are in the thousands already. At least 3 or 4 thousand fish," said Adam Boman, Missouri Department of Conservation.

Adam
Boman says about 100% of the fish in a roughly six mile stretch from
Monett to Pierce City are dead and, in Pierce City, there is a partial
kill.

WATCH: Thousands of fish found dead along Clear Creek.

"15 or 20 years ago, there was one this
bad on this same creek, but this is by far the worst one I've seen in my
career," he said.

It's an issue that has farmers and parents worried.

"Farmers have their cattle drinking out of the creek, people have their kids playing in the creek," said Adam.

Teresa says it could be years before the creek recovers.

"We cant repair or do anything about it until we actually know what the cause is," said Teresa.

People
we talked with today are also worried because the creek is part of the
Spring River Water Shed, and eventually it dumps into Shoal Creek. The
Deptartment of Conservation will work with the Department of Natural
Resources on what is killing the fish. The DNR believes it's coming from
improperly treated or untreated wastewater. They expect to have the
results of the water samples by next week. - Fourstates Homepage.

NYC Battling Rat Epidemic, "They're Taking Over, It's Madness"

The city is launching a new war against rats.

It will target so-called “rat reservoirs,” which are areas where rodent populations survive and thrive, such as subways, sewers and city parks

One City Council member described the rat problem in the Manhattan Valley neighborhood as “an epidemic.”

The city will hire new inspectors and spend $600,000 for rat indexing to track and reduce the rat population, WCBS 880′s Paul Murnane reported.

It’s welcome news for many city residents, who claim rats — some the size of small dogs or cats — are running rampant in their neighborhoods.

“When I walked out the other morning and there were like six rats running around,” one Manhattan Valley resident said. “I thought, ‘You ever get use to this?’ But you don’t.”

“I see about 20 a day,” a man in Washington Heights told 1010 WINS’ John Montone.

One woman said rats have infested her building on 154th Street, where one rodent bit a neighbor’s daughter.

“They’re taking over, it’s madness,” she said.

A sanitation worker said he has to shake and kick bags of garbage to scatter the rats for fear they’ll jump up and bite him. - CBS New York.

Snake Found Slithering Around Cash Register In Spokane Store, Washington, United States

Shoppers at Shopko said a snake was found slithering around a cash
register at the store on Spokane's South Hill in May but that SCRAPS
refused to come get it.

Based on the description of the snake from witnesses, some experts said
they believed the snake was a python or a boa constrictor. A different
expert said they thought the snake was a bull snake and therefore
harmless.

Staff at Shopko said SCRAPS would not come retrieve the snake. They said
SCRAPS told them to call Crime Check. SCRAPS said they would not
respond to the snake because it was possibly a native snake. Shopko
employees said they eventually guided the snake to a nearby field.

WATCH: Snake found slithering around cash register in Spokane store.

A woman told staff that she found a large snake dead nearby the Shopko a
few days later. Reptile experts responded to the area to make sure it
was the same snake. It was unknown on Tuesday whether it was the same
snake.

The picture of the snake attached to this story was taken by a witness as the snake was guided to a field. - NWCN.

Woman Bitten By Snake While On Toilet In Naron, Spain

The snake is still in the area, causing panic among neighbors, afraid that they, too, might be bitten on the bottom.Getty Images/iStockphoto

A Spanish woman went to hospital after being bitten on her bottom by a snake as she sat on the toilet.

Iris Castroverde, a mother-of-two, was bitten on the left buttock.

Frightened neighbors are "psychotic" because the bright yellow and green
snake is still on the loose, said one resident of the town of Naron,
northern Spain, where the reptile struck.

After biting 30-year-old Castroverde, the snake disappeared down the drain after she flushed, reported The Local.

Castroverde said the snake was around 20 centimetres (eight inches) long.

The incident happened at around 11pm. Castroverde heard a noise, then a splash and then felt the bite.

"It happened to me, but it could have happened to my two children," she told Spain's ABC newspaper.